Tales of the 4th Grade Nothing...

Well, not really. It would be more appropriate for the last word to be SOMETHING.

With this being Ariel's first year with a male teacher, I thought it has been interesting to read the comments I have gotten on my blog about the topic, and I won't even begin telling you what I have heard in person about male teachers.

I guess I never thought about all the opinions out there on male teachers. Let me start off by saying I requested for Ariel to have Mr. Baker, and so far it has been AWESOME for her.

Throughout my life, I have had wonderful experience with males teachers, (well, those that were not coaches--sorry, but I'm being honest. I'm not saying there are not great male teachers who are also coaches, I just never had any. My experience was that they loved sports and were forced to teach something like geography or driver's ed.). **This is an edit. I did have one coach for a teacher that was good, that I just remembered. He taught 7th grade science--Coach Hadd. Sorry to him.**

I even wish there were more male teachers.

Some of you may be asking, "Why?" or thinking I'm crazy, and then others know why because you have had a great male teacher.

Like I said, I have been fortunate to have had many.

All of this got me to think about my VERY most favorite teacher ever. The first teacher who instilled in me a love for learning---and he was a male--the first male teacher I had ever had.

I was in the fourth grade and his name was Mr. John Darenforth. However, his students called him Mr. D.

He also became the real first father figure for me, something that I desperately needed in my life at the time. I realize that some children don't need that, but there are many who do, and I was one of them.

He was the first teacher that I can remember telling me, "You can be whatever you want to be. You will be someone important when you grow up. " I'm not so sure that the "important" part ever happened accept in the eyes of my children, but, hey I'll take that.

The point is, he played an important part in who I am today.

This man made such an impact in my life in so much that while I was in college, I wrote a paper about him. I received an A+ for that assignment with a handwritten note attached from my professor. The note said it was an inspiring essay, and that I should consider sending him a copy.
Hmm. I never thought of doing that, but her letter gave me some encouragement to do so.
I did search to try and find him to thank him personally for the impact he had on my life. However, I was never able to find him.

I am the first person in my family to have completed college, and I think part of that credit should be given to him. I wanted to prove him right, that I could be somebody, even with a life that was far from perfect.

The thing is, I know that I'm not the only child who's life he made a difference in. He was just that kind of teacher. He made learning come to life for every 9-10yr. old that entered his classroom. He taught outside of the box.

Let me explain.

When we were reading folklore, Mr. D held a Lumberjack Day. We were assigned to come dressed in jeans, checkered shirts and suspenders (if we had them)--like Paul Bunyan. He had decorated the room (quite nice), he made us all "flapjacks" that morning (and no, he never had room parents come in and help), we read the story of Paul Bunyan and his ox, Babe, as well as many other folklore's. The day ended with a huge checker tournament, in which I was first runner up!

In science, when we were studying about gravity, he let us all make paper airplanes and go outside and fly them. When we were studying about electricity, we all got to go outside and fly a kite for a short time, and then we came back inside and talked of Benjamin Franklin's discovery. His class was always far from boring. I'll let you just imagine what we did when we studied insects. Let me just say it FUN.

When we studied fables, he had yet another creative teaching tool. Mr. D put us in groups of three and we were given the assignment to write our own fable (not forgetting to end with a moral). Once we had written our fable in a play format, we made paper mache puppet heads for our character. My puppet was a wolf. We also had to paint a backdrop. Once we had completed all of this, we put on a play for the school. We had all worked hard on this and I remember how nice it felt for us to hear the other students applauding our work. Mr. D proved to us that when we work hard, we can accomplish anything. That one experience taught us about writing, team work, organization, performing for an audience and I'm sure many other things that I just can't think of at this moment.

Our class production of fables. You can not see me. I am in the middle covered by the puppet.

He also did not want any of his students to be "left behind". I used to have trouble remembering the product of 6X8. After missing several math problems for this reason, Mr. D had the entire class repeat over and over, "6 times 8 is 48." Then, he asked me what 6 times 8 was and I said, "48." To this day, I have remembered that, and whenever I see that multiplication problem I always think of that day.

Mr. D was also a great story teller and reader. He would make books come to life by giving each character his own voice and remembering that voice no matter how long the book was. I have never, ever heard a person read a book aloud as well as him.

Also, at recess, he got involved. He had fun with us. I remember one time we all were playing softball and he was up to bat. He hit that ball, and it came right to me and I caught it. However, I dropped it because it stung my hand so bad. But afterward, he came up to me and said, "WOW! If you had a glove, you would have caught that ball, and that would have been a first." He was so kind like that.

Years later through my mom, I found out that he paid for my sister and I to participate in something the school system did in the winter. I don't remember how often it occurred (I thought it was weekly, but I may be wrong) but in the winter, all the children who paid on Friday's got to participate in a skiing program. My sister and I never were never able to participate until I was in his class. He never wanted anyone to be left out and it was then that I was able to learn to love snow skiing.

I literally could spend all day and night typing about all the wonderful things that I learned in the fourth grade. I could tell you of other teaching techniques he used, all the learning activities, because there definitely were more. But I won't.

I'll just hold them close to my heart and hope that my children can be blessed with their own Mr. D and one day grow up and have their own Tales of the __ Grade Something.

My 4th grade class. I am in the first row 2nd person on the left.

This post is dedicated to all the wonderful male teachers out there who dedicate their life to teaching. And especially to some of my favorites: Mr. D, Mr. Raley, and Mr. Lowery.